Recently, the reporter learned that after the oil painting "Member of the Communist Party of China - Zhong Nanshan" followed the permanent collection of the National Art Museum of China, Feng Shaoxie accepted the invitation to create the same title again, which has recently been permanently collected by the National Museum of China. Works on the same theme are also collected by two of China's top professional art museums, which is rare in the history of Chinese art.
Feng Shaoxie is known for his realistic oil painting portraits. He is good at exploring and revealing social reality through his works, drawing and showing the spiritual connotation of characters through details.
The huge oil painting "Member of the Communist Party of China - Zhong Nanshan" is a re-creation inspired by Feng Shaoxie's news footage.
Feng Shaoxie said that at the moment of fighting the epidemic and in the face of disasters, the great spirit of Academician Zhong Nanshan who dared to take responsibility and did his duty touched countless Chinese people, and it was this kind of touch that made him create this work.
In fact, this work also had a relationship with the National Museum of China before: in 2020, in the "Exhibition of Art Works on the Theme of Unity of Purpose and One Anti-epidemic" held by the National Museum, "Zhong Nanshan, a member of the Communist Party of China" was placed in the most conspicuous position at the entrance of the exhibition hall.
Since then, the National Art Museum of China has held the "Great Journey, The Picture Scroll of the Times and the Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China", "Beauty in Science and Technology Collection Exhibition", "Beauty in Cultivation Collection Exhibition", and "Exhibition of Centennial Party History in the Century-old FanghuaYi Art Classics" held by the Propaganda Department of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee. The work has been featured in several exhibitions.
Up to now, he has created a total of four works of the same title, two large and two small. Two of them are 2.3 meters wide and 1.8 meters high, which are collected by the National Art Museum of China and the National Museum of China, and the other two are 0.9 meters wide and 0.7 meters high, which are collected by Academician Zhong Nanshan himself and the Shanghai Art Badai Art Museum.
Feng Shaoxie and Zhong Nanshan took a group photo
Chen Lusheng, former deputy director of the National Museum of China, said that Feng Shaoxie carefully portrayed Zhong Nanshan's inner world with the method of "writing gods in shape" in traditional Chinese painting, which included his perseverance and courage, his fearless dedication, his love and compassion, and his responsibility to the country and the people.
"I have paid attention to this work a long time ago," said Academician Zhong Nanshan, seeing this painting, his thoughts also returned to the anti-epidemic scene in Wuhan that year, when the epidemic was very severe, and his mood was also very anxious, "This work painted me more haggard, but it truthfully reflected the situation at that time."
As Li Jinkun, vice chairman of the China Artists Association, chairman of the Guangdong Artists Association, and president of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, said, the reason why it touches people's hearts is related to the fact that the painting vividly shows a heroic figure who stepped forward in times of danger, and it is more related to the fact that the work has the power to directly hit the soul of the audience in terms of emotional interpretation.
Kong Wei, president of the Shandong Academy of Painting, said that whether it is the gray hair on his forehead, or the eye sockets full of tears, the anxious and resolute eyes, or the neck with vicissitudes, a large number of details deeply portray the spiritual characteristics of Academician Zhong's all-out struggle and the "epidemic" and the great love for the country and the people.
Hu Bin, dean and professor of the School of Arts and Humanities of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, believes that this is not just a portrait of an individual, but a "monument" to present a group of people who are united in their will and overcome difficulties together.
Text/Guangzhou Daily, New Flower City reporter Li Qiaorong
Image source: Interviewee
Guangzhou Daily New Flower City Editor Li Yani